USA. A breakfast counter. The waitress recommended the biscuits and gravy, and when the plate arrived, I thought something had gone wrong in the kitchen.
I say this with shame. The dish looked like a construction site after rain. Pale mounds. Gray ladle-fall. Speckles I could not identify.
In my land, the eye eats first. A meal is arranged like a garden. This meal was arranged like weather.
"Is it… finished?" I asked, carefully.
"Honey, that's what it looks like."
The man beside me was already eating his. He did not look up. "Just try it."
I am a man who has charged hillsides at dawn. I raised the fork. I tried it.
I must now formally apologize to the biscuits, the gravy, the waitress, the kitchen, and the entire breakfast tradition of the American South.
It was magnificent. Warm. Peppered. The biscuit drank the gravy the way a field drinks rain — THAT is why it is shaped like that, you fool — and every mound I had insulted was a soft fold of comfort that my homeland, in eight hundred years, never once thought to invent.
"Well?" the waitress asked.
"I judged it," I confessed. "By its appearance. I am ashamed."
"Everybody does, hon."
Everybody does. A national dish that forgives you for doubting it. It expects the doubt. It waits for you on the other side of it.
Do not judge the gravy by its face. Judge yourself, for hesitating.
I order it every Saturday now. I no longer see the construction site. I see only the garden.
It was a garden the whole time. The eye must be trained.
West Ham United have confirmed that Joint-Chair David Sullivan has stepped down from his position with immediate effect.
Mr Sullivan has also resigned as a director of both WH Holding Limited and West Ham United Football Club, having been made aware of the impending publication of serious historic allegations. It is understood none of the allegations relate to West Ham United or any of its operations.
Through his own legal representatives Mr Sullivan denies any illegal conduct and has taken the decision to step down in order to avoid disruption to the Club while he addresses the matter privately.
Interim Chief Executive Officer Karim Virani, reporting into the current Board of Directors, will continue to be responsible for leading the Club’s day-to-day operations. The Club will provide an update on the future structure of the Board of Directors in due course, but will make no further comment at this time.
Postgame, @UCLABaseball Freshman Angel Cervantes elaborated on Jerry the Dinosaur, who joins him on the mound every inning: “he’s just my little guy that’s just hanging out with me. Sometimes when I look down, I put my hand on my lid, I like to take two breaths and that’s what I’m looking at the whole time. He calms me down. I know it might sound, like, childish, but I mean whatever works for you and that’s what works for me, so he’s gonna be here for a long time”.
Reporter: "To what extent are Americans' financial situations motivating you to make a deal?"
President Trump: "Not even a little bit…I don't think about Americans' financial situations."
🗣️🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: Tomas Souček is speaking out!
"It's a BIG error by VAR! I don't see any foul. Every game Arsenal does so many blocks... so many small fouls.... and now suddenly they need the title and they get it. For football this is very disappointing. Even for Arsenal fans this is not what we want."
— ViaPlay